America braces for an avalanche of Trump executive orders on day one

Washington, DC

On your marks, get set, executive orders. 

Donald Trump will be sworn back into office on Monday, from inside the Capitol Rotunda, as Ronald Reagan was in 1985.

Cold weather is the official reason for moving the ceremony from outside to in, and it seems true — the seventy-eight-year-old president-elect may wish to avoid the fate of his predecessor William Henry Harrison — although there’s plenty of speculation that security is the real factor. The Donald, in benevolent king mode, also didn’t want the poor horses to freeze to death on his big day. It’s funny what goes on in that very famous orange head. 

Trump will then make an appearance at the Capitol One Arena, for the fans, before going on to the White House so that he can, as he promised, jokingly yet seriously last year, be a dictator for one day. He will do this by signing as many as 100 executive orders. It would be very Donald to have added a few more directives just so he can reach the nice round century. Expect the growing legion of Trump loyalists to begin a chorus in the media: he’s done more in one day than most presidents do in their first 100. We’re so back, et cetera, ad infinitum.  

Trump has promised from day one to live up to his day one promises and he’s made quite a few since 2020.  Reporters usually talk about a “flurry” of presidential executive orders. This will be more like an “avalanche” or a “barrage” of commander-in-chiefing. The Republican senator John Barrasso called it a “blizzard” and a “shock and awe” approach. 

The idea is to undo the Biden agenda and impose Trump 2.0 in its place at breakneck speed. The primary focus will be energy and immigration. Trump understands that cheap power fuels financial success and so he wants lots and lots of it. He will order the ending of Biden’s environmental restrictions, the so-called Green New Deal, the beginning of much more drilling and fracking projects across America.

On immigration, he will sign back in his successful “Remain in Mexico” policy and other measures to “seal the border” and begin his program of deportations. He will mix heavy with light, too, by signing orders about America’s 250th birthday. 

America is not meant to be governed by fiat, but Trump wants day one of term two to be a massive and unprecedented display of executive command. And no horses will be harmed.